Thunder Bay isn’t a pleasant place to be a woman.
It’s not much safer to be a man.
According to police-reported incidents from 2011, the city is the most dangerous in Canada, with more than 1,900 violent incidents per 100,000 women on record for the year.
That’s more than any other census metropolitan area in the country. For men, at 1,507 incidents per 100,000 people, only two cities topped Thunder Bay, they being Saskatoon and Kelowna, B.C.
It appears Thunder Bay’s numbers may only be the tip of the iceberg.
Debbie Zweep, executive director at Faye Peterson Transition House, a battered women’s shelter, says they estimate only five to 10 per cent of all violent attacks are reported each year.
While it stands to reason the same stats apply in other communities, if the number is truly 19,000, Zweep’s conservative guess, the city is facing an epidemic.
Substance abuse may be at the root of the problem, but in no way should it be labeled an excuse.
Women are not born to be battered and bruised, bullied and beaten. They are our mothers, daughters, grandmothers and sisters. They’re our caretakers, our lovers and our friends.
They deserve to live life to the fullest, not in fear. It’s time for the men of Thunder Bay to lower their fists and drop their call to arms.
Yes, we mean you.
